I'm about to start breaking the game down, so I'll have plenty of breakdowns over the next couple of days. Wanted to share my initial thoughts of the game.
TEAM
- The biggest surprise in this game wasn't that Notre Dame was the more physical team, the better conditioned team or the better coached team. I expected all of that to be true. What really surprised me was Notre Dame was the faster team. USC probably has guys who could beat a lot of players in sprint races, but on the field Notre Dame was clearly the faster team. USC just could not out-run Notre Dame and I was shocked how many times we saw RB's and especially WR's running away from USC players.
- The new coordinators obviously deserve a great deal of praise, as does the man who hired them and guides the program. But last night more than any other game this season we saw how huge the hiring of Matt Balis was for Notre Dame. I don't like to be an "I told you so" kind of guy, but I think everyone can obviously see the flaws in the previous S&C program, and why Balis is considered one of the best in the business.
- Think about this .... Notre Dame had its third string in the game against USC. Seriously. They had walk ons in the game on the final drive against USC.
OFFENSE
- Impressive game plan from OC Chip Long. He had USC off balance all game long. Mixed up the run looks, mixed up the run schemes, hit some reverses, had a 3rd down screen called perfectly (it was dropped) and his pass concepts showed he knew exactly how to whip Clancy Pendergast. The first TD was a great man beater. It was a scissors concept that put St. Brown on a one-on-one post vs. the CB and the TE on a corner route vs. a LB or safety. Easy read, Wimbush looked corner, saw St. Brown and hit him.
On the 3rd-and-10 conversion to start the third-quarter ND ran an old school curl-flat concept, but they ran the slot receiver up the seam and used the TE to run the flat. It was old school but also showed nuance to specifically open up the concept against USC's specific coverages.
- We saw the difference Wimbush makes in this offense. USC didn't know what to do. Do you defend Adams or do you defend Wimbush? You can't do both, at least the vast majority of teams cannot. He wasn't overly efficient, due in part to a couple of key drops, but he's not going to look like Jimmy Clausen any time soon ... or ever. But this offense is hard, very hard to defend when he's in the lineup b/c of the explosiveness he brings to the game.
- Wimbush hitting a couple of plays downfield early put USC in a really tough spot, and forced them to get out of their all-man early philosophy which allowed them to load the box. When they started dropping more into coverage we saw Wimbush start gashing USC with his legs. They just didn't know what to do.
- Josh Adams missed a read on the first play and was a bit tentative. That was the end of his tentative running. On Notre Dame's very next series he started gashing USC. He had a quiet 89 yards at the half and broke the game open in the third quarter. The Irish line obviously did some great things, but this was one of his best games b/c he was making defenders miss, he was putting his shoulder down and punishing defenders at the end of runs and he did some good downfield blocking. The drop on the first drive screen - which would have gone for a big play - was the only black mark on an otherwise dominant night for him.
- The Tony Jones Jr. you all saw tonight is the guy we (analysts, reporters) saw in spring practice and fall camp. Strong vertical burst, great vision, power to finish off runs. If they can get him to stay healthy (he finally was) and get Dexter Williams back to full health the Irish will have a really, really scary backfield combination.
- Equanimeous St. Brown played with more fire last night, which was a very welcome sign.
- I feel like with Stepherson Notre Dame added a mid-year transfer who happens to be more explosive than anyone else they have at the position. His back shoulder catch was excellent and he did a great job working back to Wimbush on the fourth-quarter scramble. His blocking needs to get better, but when you can add a kid like him to an offense that already has Adams, Wimbush, Williams, St. Brown and now Tony Jones Jr. .... that's scary.
- Alizé Mack and Durham Smythe blocked their butts off in this game, but Mack has to make that catch on the wheel route late in the second quarter. Has to make that catch.
- The offensive line .... not sure what else to say. They just dominated USC. I mean, they physically whipped USC for four quarters. It was the most destructive performance I've ever seen from a Notre Dame OL against USC, and that's saying something b/c Notre Dame flat dominated USC's DL two years ago in that 41-31 win.
DEFENSE
- Elko owned Clay Helton and Tee Martin tonight. They mixed up coverages, they brought pressures from all over and his run stunts were perfectly designed to stop the USC stretch concepts. I didn't love the soft coverage they showed at times but it made sense. You don't want to let USC run by you and get a cheap score. Make them run a lot of plays b/c eventually they will make a mistake, which is what happened in all but 2 third quarter drives.
- The defensive line was tremendous in this game. Inside, Jerry Tillery was a beast. He owned the USC interior men. Jonathan Bonner held his own as well, and Darnold really couldn't get going early mainly b/c of the inside push Tillery and Bonner were giving. When Andrew Trumbetti was inside in the nickel he did the same thing. Trumbetti had a really good game. I don't think he ever actually got a behind the line stop, but several times he forced Darnold to avoid him. Freshman Kurt Hinish hasn't played much in recent weeks b/c he was getting pushed around too much. He was forced into the lineup last night and he played his best game of the season. Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa and Micah Dew-Treadway also did some good things.
- I saw USC's OL bully Stanford, I mean straight bully Stanford. Had over 300 rushing yards vs. the Cardinal about a month ago. Did the same vs. Utah last week. Notre Dame whipped that same line for 60 minutes.
- USC's OT's had no chance against Notre Dame's edge rushers last night. When was the last time we heard that? I'll repeat, Notre Dame's ends were far too athletic and powerful for the USC offensive tackles. Khalid Kareem had a pair of sacks, Daelin Hayes was all over the field and Julian Okwara had several pressures.
- Te'von Coney had his best game, and it wasn't close. He played so aggressive, and he took full advantage of the play of the DL. He made good reads, he attacked downhill and he tackled extremely well. Coney filled up the stat sheet (11 tackles, 2 TFL's, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble, 1 recover, 1 QB hurry) and he was consistent. Nyles Morgan blew a coverage on a long completion but outside of that he was very good. He controlled the cut back lanes and was physical when USC ran at him. He had a pressure where Ronald Jones stepped into the pocket and Morgan literally hit him, lifted him off his feet and knocked him back about 2-3 yards.
- That was what Notre Dame did all night against USC. They bullied USC. The ND defense was stronger and faster than USC.
- The secondary did its job in this game outside of one blown coverage, but fortunately that downfield pass fell incomplete. The game plan was to give up a cushion and then rally to the ball and make tackles. Outside of 2-3 missed tackle the corners executed that plan. Nick Watkins was a bit too soft on a couple of 3rd-4th down throws but he was solid otherwise. He did a great job baiting Darnold on the corner route he picked off. It was Cover 2 and Watkins took the flat away, read Darnold's eyes and as soon as Darnold cocked to throw Watkins took off deep and picked off the corner throw.
- Speaking of corners, Watkins was the field cornerback yesterday and Julian Love played more in the boundary. Notre Dame also had Troy Pride Jr. playing the field cornerback spot in Nickel, likely as a counter to USC's speed at WR. It was a good move, as Pride was in good position and could easily run with the USC receivers.
- The safeties and linebackers ate up the USC tight ends in coverage.
TEAM
- The biggest surprise in this game wasn't that Notre Dame was the more physical team, the better conditioned team or the better coached team. I expected all of that to be true. What really surprised me was Notre Dame was the faster team. USC probably has guys who could beat a lot of players in sprint races, but on the field Notre Dame was clearly the faster team. USC just could not out-run Notre Dame and I was shocked how many times we saw RB's and especially WR's running away from USC players.
- The new coordinators obviously deserve a great deal of praise, as does the man who hired them and guides the program. But last night more than any other game this season we saw how huge the hiring of Matt Balis was for Notre Dame. I don't like to be an "I told you so" kind of guy, but I think everyone can obviously see the flaws in the previous S&C program, and why Balis is considered one of the best in the business.
- Think about this .... Notre Dame had its third string in the game against USC. Seriously. They had walk ons in the game on the final drive against USC.
OFFENSE
- Impressive game plan from OC Chip Long. He had USC off balance all game long. Mixed up the run looks, mixed up the run schemes, hit some reverses, had a 3rd down screen called perfectly (it was dropped) and his pass concepts showed he knew exactly how to whip Clancy Pendergast. The first TD was a great man beater. It was a scissors concept that put St. Brown on a one-on-one post vs. the CB and the TE on a corner route vs. a LB or safety. Easy read, Wimbush looked corner, saw St. Brown and hit him.
On the 3rd-and-10 conversion to start the third-quarter ND ran an old school curl-flat concept, but they ran the slot receiver up the seam and used the TE to run the flat. It was old school but also showed nuance to specifically open up the concept against USC's specific coverages.
- We saw the difference Wimbush makes in this offense. USC didn't know what to do. Do you defend Adams or do you defend Wimbush? You can't do both, at least the vast majority of teams cannot. He wasn't overly efficient, due in part to a couple of key drops, but he's not going to look like Jimmy Clausen any time soon ... or ever. But this offense is hard, very hard to defend when he's in the lineup b/c of the explosiveness he brings to the game.
- Wimbush hitting a couple of plays downfield early put USC in a really tough spot, and forced them to get out of their all-man early philosophy which allowed them to load the box. When they started dropping more into coverage we saw Wimbush start gashing USC with his legs. They just didn't know what to do.
- Josh Adams missed a read on the first play and was a bit tentative. That was the end of his tentative running. On Notre Dame's very next series he started gashing USC. He had a quiet 89 yards at the half and broke the game open in the third quarter. The Irish line obviously did some great things, but this was one of his best games b/c he was making defenders miss, he was putting his shoulder down and punishing defenders at the end of runs and he did some good downfield blocking. The drop on the first drive screen - which would have gone for a big play - was the only black mark on an otherwise dominant night for him.
- The Tony Jones Jr. you all saw tonight is the guy we (analysts, reporters) saw in spring practice and fall camp. Strong vertical burst, great vision, power to finish off runs. If they can get him to stay healthy (he finally was) and get Dexter Williams back to full health the Irish will have a really, really scary backfield combination.
- Equanimeous St. Brown played with more fire last night, which was a very welcome sign.
- I feel like with Stepherson Notre Dame added a mid-year transfer who happens to be more explosive than anyone else they have at the position. His back shoulder catch was excellent and he did a great job working back to Wimbush on the fourth-quarter scramble. His blocking needs to get better, but when you can add a kid like him to an offense that already has Adams, Wimbush, Williams, St. Brown and now Tony Jones Jr. .... that's scary.
- Alizé Mack and Durham Smythe blocked their butts off in this game, but Mack has to make that catch on the wheel route late in the second quarter. Has to make that catch.
- The offensive line .... not sure what else to say. They just dominated USC. I mean, they physically whipped USC for four quarters. It was the most destructive performance I've ever seen from a Notre Dame OL against USC, and that's saying something b/c Notre Dame flat dominated USC's DL two years ago in that 41-31 win.
DEFENSE
- Elko owned Clay Helton and Tee Martin tonight. They mixed up coverages, they brought pressures from all over and his run stunts were perfectly designed to stop the USC stretch concepts. I didn't love the soft coverage they showed at times but it made sense. You don't want to let USC run by you and get a cheap score. Make them run a lot of plays b/c eventually they will make a mistake, which is what happened in all but 2 third quarter drives.
- The defensive line was tremendous in this game. Inside, Jerry Tillery was a beast. He owned the USC interior men. Jonathan Bonner held his own as well, and Darnold really couldn't get going early mainly b/c of the inside push Tillery and Bonner were giving. When Andrew Trumbetti was inside in the nickel he did the same thing. Trumbetti had a really good game. I don't think he ever actually got a behind the line stop, but several times he forced Darnold to avoid him. Freshman Kurt Hinish hasn't played much in recent weeks b/c he was getting pushed around too much. He was forced into the lineup last night and he played his best game of the season. Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa and Micah Dew-Treadway also did some good things.
- I saw USC's OL bully Stanford, I mean straight bully Stanford. Had over 300 rushing yards vs. the Cardinal about a month ago. Did the same vs. Utah last week. Notre Dame whipped that same line for 60 minutes.
- USC's OT's had no chance against Notre Dame's edge rushers last night. When was the last time we heard that? I'll repeat, Notre Dame's ends were far too athletic and powerful for the USC offensive tackles. Khalid Kareem had a pair of sacks, Daelin Hayes was all over the field and Julian Okwara had several pressures.
- Te'von Coney had his best game, and it wasn't close. He played so aggressive, and he took full advantage of the play of the DL. He made good reads, he attacked downhill and he tackled extremely well. Coney filled up the stat sheet (11 tackles, 2 TFL's, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble, 1 recover, 1 QB hurry) and he was consistent. Nyles Morgan blew a coverage on a long completion but outside of that he was very good. He controlled the cut back lanes and was physical when USC ran at him. He had a pressure where Ronald Jones stepped into the pocket and Morgan literally hit him, lifted him off his feet and knocked him back about 2-3 yards.
- That was what Notre Dame did all night against USC. They bullied USC. The ND defense was stronger and faster than USC.
- The secondary did its job in this game outside of one blown coverage, but fortunately that downfield pass fell incomplete. The game plan was to give up a cushion and then rally to the ball and make tackles. Outside of 2-3 missed tackle the corners executed that plan. Nick Watkins was a bit too soft on a couple of 3rd-4th down throws but he was solid otherwise. He did a great job baiting Darnold on the corner route he picked off. It was Cover 2 and Watkins took the flat away, read Darnold's eyes and as soon as Darnold cocked to throw Watkins took off deep and picked off the corner throw.
- Speaking of corners, Watkins was the field cornerback yesterday and Julian Love played more in the boundary. Notre Dame also had Troy Pride Jr. playing the field cornerback spot in Nickel, likely as a counter to USC's speed at WR. It was a good move, as Pride was in good position and could easily run with the USC receivers.
- The safeties and linebackers ate up the USC tight ends in coverage.
